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UH Releases Official Carbon
Footprint

The
University of Houston has recently
released its official carbon
footprint, serving as both an
education piece to the campus
community, as well as an incentive
and starting point for initiating a
plan for carbon reduction.

The carbon footprint’s release was
commissioned by UH’s Sustainability
Task Force. The Task Force is
composed of certain faculty, staff,
students and administrators who are
committed to improving
sustainability on campus.

The calculator used for the report
is the Clean Air-Cool Planet Carbon
Calculator, which is endorsed by the
Association for the Advancement of
Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
The calculator was specifically
designed for colleges and
universities so that these
institutions could effectively
compare the same information.

Data for the footprint was
calculated with the coordination of
student volunteers and operations
staff at the university under the
oversight of Dr. Barry Lefer,
Assistant Professor in the
department of Earth and Atmospheric
Science, and member of the
Sustainability Task Force.

This was an undertaking that
required the collection of a large
amount of data, research and data
entry by students. "Working on the
carbon footprint calculation was a
great experience, said Barbara
Schmeitz, a student who worked on
the project. “It was very
interesting to see how the different
operations and aspects of daily
campus life affect this footprint.
Our university is making good
strides towards lowering the carbon
footprint but there is always room
for improvement so that future
generations can enjoy and experience
life like we do now."

The inherent transparency in sharing
this information, and the resulting
educational awareness for the
campus, should provide a key
starting point to the implementation
of greater environmental friendly
measures.

“If we are going to be effective in
sustainability and making sure that
people become more invested in
sustainability and climate change,
they have to know what’s going on
right now first,” said Jonas Chin,
Program Coordinator for University
Services.

Within the report, CO2 emissions
were calculated for categories such
as faculty and staff commuting,
student commuting, air travel, solid
waste, waste water, and paper
purchasing.

This data should prove to increase
awareness regarding the amount of
energy, water and gasoline which are
used each year, and the need for
conservation.

“First of all, we’re committed.
Second of all, we want people to
know what they’re breathing, and
third of all, we want to come up
with a carbon reduction master
plan,” said Chin.

After much research, numbers were
generated to illustrate UH’s current
statistics, such as over 121 million
miles traveled last year and 5.5
million gallons of gas used by
student cars alone. The university
also used over 320 million gallons
of water last year – demonstrating
the need for greater conservation in
these areas.

“The university intends to calculate
and review its carbon footprint on
an annual basis. Our footprint tells
us which areas or functions of the
university are emitting the most
greenhouse gases,” explained Emily
Messa, Assistant Vice President for
University Services and head of the
Green UH Initiative. “By
understanding our footprint, we
understand the climate impact of UH
and which areas need to be improved.
The carbon footprint is one piece of
the university’s comprehensive
sustainability plan and one metric
that we use to measure
improvements.”

In addition to its availability on
the web, UH’s carbon footprint will
also be presented at the Earth Day
Carnival on April 22nd. UH hopes to
stimulate interest in these issues
and increase involvement in combined
efforts to resolve them.